'It all seemed normal': Doctor recalls Lindsay Clancy's child's last visit hours before killings

PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS: A routine appointment involving Lindsay Clancy's 5-year-old daughter gave no indication of the devastating events that would unfold later that day, a pediatrician told jurors on Thursday, August 6.

Dr Lindsay Rosshirt said Cora appeared well and behaved normally during the visit in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

She also recalled Clancy as appropriate and attentive, offering jurors a picture of an apparently ordinary mother-daughter appointment hours before the children died.

Doctor details Lindsay Clancy's last visit

According to the doctor, there was nothing remarkable about the appointment itself.

Cora had been experiencing stomach aches, and Rosshirt recommended a children’s laxative while advising that she return for another evaluation if the symptoms continued.

The doctor said the child did not appear distressed or unusually behaved.

Rosshirt also told the jury that Clancy did not strike her as unusual during the appointment.

“It was a very normal visit, I always thought she was a good mom,” she said, describing Cora as behaving normally and saying she had not noticed anything out of the ordinary.

That recollection is now being examined closely because of what happened after the family left the doctor's office.

Clancy was at home with her three children later that evening while her husband, Patrick Clancy, went out to pick up the medicine recommended for Cora.

Prosecutors allege that Clancy then killed Cora, Dawson, 3, and Callan, who was 8 months old.

The pediatrician's testimony also touched on Clancy's interactions with doctors around her youngest child.

Rosshirt said she had not observed signs of postpartum depression in Clancy during appointments involving Callan.

That point matters because Clancy's mental state is at the center of the trial.

Clancy's father-in-law, Christopher Clancy, has offered a similar description.

He testified that he had maintained a “very good relationship” with Lindsay and remembered her as “very mothering” toward her children.

Additionally, Lindsay Clancy broke down in court as a medical examiner testified about autopsy images of her infant son, becoming the first witness to take the stand.

The long road to justice

Clancy's defense is not disputing that she caused the deaths of her three children.

Instead, her lawyers are arguing that she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis and was suffering from a range of serious mental-health problems at the time.

The defense says those conditions affected her ability to understand reality and left her unable to appreciate the consequences of what she was doing.

Prosecutors, however, maintain that Clancy should be held criminally responsible.

That disagreement has turned testimony about her behavior in the weeks and months before the killings into a crucial part of the case.